MSHTA Suspicious Execution 01
Detection for mshta.exe suspicious execution patterns sometimes involving file polyglotism
Sigma rule (View on GitHub)
1title: MSHTA Suspicious Execution 01
2id: cc7abbd0-762b-41e3-8a26-57ad50d2eea3
3status: test
4description: Detection for mshta.exe suspicious execution patterns sometimes involving file polyglotism
5references:
6 - http://blog.sevagas.com/?Hacking-around-HTA-files
7 - https://0x00sec.org/t/clientside-exploitation-in-2018-how-pentesting-has-changed/7356
8 - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/dotnet/framework/data/xml/xslt/xslt-stylesheet-scripting-using-msxsl-script
9 - https://medium.com/tsscyber/pentesting-and-hta-bypassing-powershell-constrained-language-mode-53a42856c997
10 - https://twitter.com/mattifestation/status/1326228491302563846
11author: Diego Perez (@darkquassar), Markus Neis, Swisscom (Improve Rule)
12date: 2019-02-22
13modified: 2022-11-07
14tags:
15 - attack.defense-evasion
16 - attack.t1140
17 - attack.t1218.005
18 - attack.execution
19 - attack.t1059.007
20 - cve.2020-1599
21logsource:
22 category: process_creation
23 product: windows
24detection:
25 selection:
26 Image|endswith: '\mshta.exe'
27 CommandLine|contains:
28 - 'vbscript'
29 - '.jpg'
30 - '.png'
31 - '.lnk'
32 # - '.chm' # could be prone to false positives
33 - '.xls'
34 - '.doc'
35 - '.zip'
36 - '.dll'
37 # - '.exe'
38 condition: selection
39falsepositives:
40 - False positives depend on scripts and administrative tools used in the monitored environment
41level: high
References
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